Bad news foods

It really is a shame. Some of the best-tasting foods are actually some of the worst in terms of fat and calories. But it can be hard to avoid them, especially in places—like mallswhere nutrition information usually isn’t available.

So we did the work for you; take a look at a list of foods you should skipor pickat a mall, restaurant, or grocery store.

(A 2,000-calorie-a-day diet should have no more than 66 grams of fat, less than 20 grams saturated; 2,400 milligrams of sodium; and 300 grams of total carbohydrate, including sugars.)

Bad news foods

It really is a shame. Some of the best-tasting foods are actually some of the worst in terms of fat and calories. But it can be hard to avoid them, especially in places—like mallswhere nutrition information usually isn’t available.

So we did the work for you; take a look at a list of foods you should skipor pickat a mall, restaurant, or grocery store.

(A 2,000-calorie-a-day diet should have no more than 66 grams of fat, less than 20 grams saturated; 2,400 milligrams of sodium; and 300 grams of total carbohydrate, including sugars.)

Smoothie King's Hulk Strawberry Smoothie

Fruit and yogurt can’t be bad, right? Wrong. Smoothies are often made with ice cream or milk and can be crammed with sugar. At least this treat gives you a heads up: It’s listed on the menu as a smoothie for people looking to gain weight.

But the calories are excessivemore than two Big Macs put together. And that’s just the small.

Choose this instead: Your best bet is a regular cup of coffee without all the bells and whistles. If you just can’t live without a Frappuccino, make it a Coffee Frappuccino Light Blended Coffee: 130 calories, 0.5g fat, 16g sugar.

Coldstone's PB&C Shake

Chances are you already suspect that milkshakes aren't all that healthy. But this particular shake, made with chocolate ice cream, milk, and peanut butter, is in a class of its own. This frosty monster delivers an entire day’s worth of calories and almost three and a half times the daily limit for saturated fat.

Olive Garden's Grilled Shrimp Caprese

Shrimp are low-fat, low-cal, and high in protein and iron. What’s not to like?

In fact, the garlic-butter sauce in this dish helps rack up nearly two-thirds of your daily fat and about one and a half times your sodium limit.

One plate: 900 calories, 41g fat, 3,490mg sodium.

Choose this instead: Get a lighter version of this dish without the melted cheese and with marinara sauce on the side. The Venetian Apricot Chicken is another option; it has one-third the calories and 1/10 the fat, but still packs a good deal of sodium.

Chili's Onion String and Crispy Jalapeno Stack

Diners and bloggers alike were outraged by the fried-onion Chili’s appetizer, the Awesome Blossom.

The unhealthy behemoth was removed from the menu, but its replacement is only a bit better. This appetizer is meant to be shared, but even one-quarter of the dish delivers an entire day’s limit for fat.

Choose this instead: Chili’s doesn’t have particularly healthy appetizers. If you must have one, try the Chips and Hot Sauce (470 calories). However, the chips' sodium is 2,790 milligrams500 milligrams over the maximum daily intake.

Macaroni Grill's Kids' Fettuccine Alfredo

Kids’ meals, in theory, are smaller than adult portions; children simply don’t need as many calories.

The average 10- to 12-year-old, the upper age limit for many kids’ menus, needs about 1,600 to 1,800 calories daily. This meal puts them at half of that, with more fat than a grown adult needs in a day.

One order: 890 calories, 67g fat, 1,480mg sodium.

Choose this instead: Coax your little ones into ordering the Grilled Chicken and Broccoli: 390 calories, 8g fat. It’s still high in sodium, so ask for sauce on the side and use sparingly.

Pizza Hut's Meaty P'Zone

The TV commercials for this 1-pound monster feature hungry dudes who don’t want to share. One chows down and tells another, who looks on longingly, to order his own. But these pizza-crust calzones should be sharedpreferably with a crowd. Eating the whole thing is akin to consuming about six cheese slices in one sitting, and it delivers one and a half times your daily limit for sodium. One serving size is one-half of a P’Zone.

Lunchables' New Wholesome Deep Dish Pepperoni Fun Pack

Ideally, a lunch box should strike a balance between taste, fun, and nutrition.

However, an easy prepackaged solution like Lunchables may not deliver. The nutrition info is based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet—that of a grown adult. The processed food is too high in fat and sodium for the average 8-year-old’s daily recommended intakes.

One Fun Pack: 470 calories, 20g fat, 880mg sodium.

Choose this instead: For the same ease, try another variety of Wholesome Lunchables, like the Turkey and Cheddar Club, which comes with water and applesauce instead of cookies and fruit punch, and has 360 calories, 8 grams of fat, and 600 milligrams of sodium.

Ruffles' Cheddar & Sour Cream Flavored Potato Chips

Ruffles don’t just have ridges, they’ve also have 17% of the upper limit of daily fat in just one serving. The calorie count is low, but chances are you’ll eat more than a serving, as most packages are the larger 1.5-ounce size.

Haagen Dazs' Dulce de Leche Low-Fat Frozen Yogurt

Frozen yogurt is often relatively healthy; even the most decadent flavors tend to have less fat than ice cream.

However, not all fro-yo is created equal. To be fair, this flavor does have 15 grams less fat than the regular ice cream flavor, but one serving packs 25 grams of sugar.

One serving (1/2 cup): 190 calories, 2.5g fat, 25g sugar, 35g carbs.

Choose this instead: Try a brand that offers no-sugar-added options, such as Edy’s. The French Vanilla flavor has only 100 calories, 3 grams of fat, 14 grams of carbs, and 4 grams of sugar in a 1/2 cup serving.

Kar's Yogurt Apple Nut Mix

Words like yogurt, apple, and nut make this snack seem healthy. But a serving size is 1 ounce. The tiny snack, often found in vending machines, contains nearly three times as much2.75 ounces. Bags in stores contain five times as much.

Eat a whole 2.75-ounce bag and you’ve consumed 412 caloriesthe equivalent of one and a half Snickers bars.

Arnold's Whole Grain Country White Bread

Don’t fall for the “whole grain” marketing trick without knowing all the facts.

While “whole grain” sounds good, this product doesn't have nearly the amount of heart-healthy whole grains as products that say “100% whole grain.”

Two slices: 220 calories, 4g fat, 420mg sodium, 42g carbs, 4g fiber.

Choose this instead: Try two slices of Arnold’s Light line of breads, like the 100% Whole Wheat: 80 calories, 1g fat, 160mg sodium, 5g fiber. Or try the new Deli Flats from Pepperidge Farm. One 100% whole-wheat roll has 100 calories and 5 grams of fiber.

Reese's Puffs Cereal

Starting your morning off with this bowl of sugary puffs may be worse than getting up on the wrong side of the bed. One serving of this breakfast treat has more sugar than an actual Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

Choose this instead: For an organic and natural take on the peanut-buttery puff, check out EnviroKidz Peanut Butter Panda Puffs from Nature’s Path. The same serving size with milk has slightly more calories, but less sugar: 170 calories, 2.5g fat, 7g sugar.

Kellogg's Pop-Tarts Brown Sugar Cinnamon

At least breakfast cereals have relatively easy-to-understand serving sizes. Pop-Tarts, on the other hand, report nutrition information for one serving, but each package contains twoand is impossible to reseal.

Eat both, and this breakfast delivers a quarter of your daily limit for fat, and more than half your added sugar for the day.

PowerBar Performance Energy Cookies & Cream

PowerBars are often shaped like candy bars and can taste like them too.

This particular PowerBar has only 1 gram of fiber and nearly three-fourths of the upper limit of daily added sugar, so there may be healthier options. (The USDA says to limit added sugar to 40 grams, or about 10 teaspoons, per day.)

VitaminWater

VitaminWater uses the old trick in which the nutrition information on the label is based on a serving size, but the bottle contains multiple servingsleaving you to do the math.

Each bottle contains 2.5 servings of the sugar-sweetened water, so a whole bottle delivers 33 grams of sugar (a can of Coke only has 6 more). That’s a lot of calories when plain water could do the trick.

Quaker Natural Granola, Low-Fat

Granola is tricky. Although the name is practically synonymous with healthy, some typesincluding this cerealcontain a startling amount of sugar per serving. One serving contains 18 grams of sugar, as much as a Twinkie.

Amy's Organic Thai Coconut Soup

Generally we love anything from this vegetarian brand, but we have to draw the line at this soup. While packed with veggies and protein-powerhouse tofu, one serving has more than half of your daily limit of saturated fat and a quarter of your sodium.